Outside work, if you meet someone new and get chatting it seems completely normal to ask about kids, how old they are and take an interest. It’s just part of normal conversation and being friendly.
However, this is an area where you need to be so careful in job interviews and other workplace conversations such as those regarding promotions or new opportunities.
Whereas most people will be delighted to talk about their family and it is an opportunity to get to know the individual and build rapport, time and again organisations have lost Tribunals after doing so in job interviews when the unsuccessful candidate subsequently claims that the organisation discriminated against them and rejected their application due to the perceived negatives of them either planning to have children or having a young family.
It is therefore best to avoid this subject during the recruitment process.
In a recent Tribunal case, a female applicant was offered a role with a financial package of £65-70,000. In a subsequent conversation she was asked about family and gave the ages of her 2 young children. Shortly after this conversation the offer was withdrawn by the company due to a ‘recruitment freeze’.
At Tribunal she described the conversation about her family as ‘out of the blue’ and that it had ‘no relevance’ to the role she had been offered.
The judge was not convinced by the recruitment freeze explanation for the offer being withdrawn and awarded her £90,000 compensation including £30,000 for injury to feelings due to sex discrimination.
As always there is more to the case but, whereas I find such detail fascinating I suspect that to most it will be mind numbingly dull so I will resist the temptation. And the message would remain the same anyway – even if you think the world has gone mad, avoid such conversations!
Having said the above, if you would like to discuss this case in more detail or anything similar please contact us, we will be delighted to talk to you. It is crucial that your HR support is aware of the nuances of such cases and are on the ball with legal matters so they can advise you properly so you can avoid claims or accusations of discrimination, harassment and bullying. We also offer highly acclaimed face to face and e-learning training programmes in these areas.
With our Monthly HR Support product, for £350 per month we will advise you on issues such as this along with doing most of the HR work for you, leaving you to focus on what you do best.